Wonder Woman #7: Diana saves democracy and the female future - Review

In this issue, Diana visits her mother at Paradise Island. Her mother tells her about the future of humanity, one that she saw in the device known as the magic sphere. Her and Diana watch humanity's future. In 1000 years women will rule the world, and not only that, but Diana and Etta Candy (her friend) will discover a vitamin that rejuvenates people and will allow humans to live for thousands of years at least, all because Etta´s mother was on her last days.

During this female future there´s some backlash from male reactionaries, particularly from senator Heeman, leader of the man´s world party, a misogynist who irrupts into the political scene with intentions to dethrone women and put men back in power. 

Heeman is interesting because he insults women when they stop him from entering the president's office and considers all of the men who healthily interact with women (like Trevor) to be sissies of a decadent modern age. 

He wants to make the president sign a pardon for a criminal, Grafton Patronage, a member of the men's world party who opposed the current president. He's obviously told to go away but he claims they will overthrow the president if she says no. In order to protect democracy Diana and Trevor are called in to take a look into the situation. Meanwhile, at the prison of the future, Grafton revolts against the guard (there´s no handcuffs or shackles in this future because of the negative effects they have on prisoners).

Diana is also captured but she escapes with her powers and faces the criminals. Grafton concocts a plan involving an airline car crashing into president Arda´s vehicle and blowing her up, but Diana (now fully dressed as Wonder Woman) uses her strength to stop the car and get rid of the explosives.

Back at the prison, the men are holding the president as a hostage, with female paratroopers surrounding them. 

Etta and Wonder Woman modify the drinking water of the prison, dropping an antidote to the vitamin they discovered, which ends up reverting the criminals back to their natural age (a ghastly sight since they are thousands of years old). The effect is useless on Arda since she is only 35 years old.

The second story shows a very out of character Steve Trevor, he's being brainwashed into adopting 1950's style machismo. He was seduced by the new men´s party by Professor Manly and the purple shirts, who plan to rise up against women and arm themselves to create a revolution. A lot of allusions to fascism and conservatism in this issue.

A police officer tries to tell Diana who is behind the gun plot but she is killed right before, something that hasn't happened since men were in charge. Diana tries to accuse him but she isn't believed as Manly has a good position and reputation. An election is about to take place and Trevor runs against Diana. Our heroine speaks of equality, substantial policies and a good relation between men and women, while Trevor delivers vague populist speeches and his only real hook is his “beauty.”

When the votes come in, Diana is predictably the winner but Manly hatches a plan to interfere with the election and sends his purple shirts to destroy the votes for the women's party. Diana resigns her role as secretary because she will investigate Manly´s fraud, but Manly uses his power to get her jailed for accusing him. 

Wonder Woman escapes her binding and rescues Trevor from his frozen entrapment, only to become frozen herself. Etta comes in and manages to unfreeze Wonder Woman and they arrest Manly. Soon after, Diana becomes president of the United States. 

In the third story Paula visits Paradise Island and Wonder Woman shows her the future she witnessed with her mother in the previous stories. In this case, we are informed of a villainess named Andra Moteeva, a woman who incites men to rebel against the ruling women.

Wonder Woman and Trevor are captured by her troops. Andra is the kind of woman who prefers the company of men and wishes men to worship her alone as she despises other women and wants them to be treated like dogs. Wonder Woman escapes and warns the other girls of the danger. She also creates a ring that knocks out enemies in one go, which will come useful as the future women's civilization forbids killing.

Diana infiltrates the prisoners once more and makes the other girls surrender so they can enter the place easily. Right before they are about to be eaten by lions and tigers Wonder Woman orders her women to attack and they defeat the male army. Andra is captured and brought to justice.

In the fourth and final story we see a slightly older Gerta, Paula´s daughter, who went through amazon training and developed great strength. However, her bad behavior causes trouble as she won't listen to anyone but Wonder Woman. Diana and her mother then decide to take a look into the girl's future.

Turns out little Gerta will grow up to be a dangerous criminal and is stopped by Wonder Woman. Diana´s mother tells her that she must teach love and obedience to Gerta. A harvest festival is taking place and the Amazon children are having a diving contest, but Gerta becomes too competitive and dives in a dangerous area.

Wonder Woman attempts to save her but a giant octopus attacks her. Gerta wants to help Diana but she decides to listen to her mother and go back to the surface, making things easier for the heroine, who promptly gets rid of the creature.    

Diana tells Paula to teach her obedience to save her daughter from a dire future.

This issue contains a lot of typical themes by Marston, such as female supremacy and submissiveness as a way for people to become less selfish and more willing to serve others, which are apparently ideal for a bright future. Totally recommended.

The Bat Woman (1968) [La mujer murciélago] Review

Since it's día de los muertos I figured we should check out a Mexican production, one that's perfect for both horror movie fans and action film fans as well. The crazy and delirious Batwoman released in 1968 and directed by René Cardona. I first came across this picture years ago on facebook and I have been delving deeper into Mexican films ever since, so it's a classic in my book.

Mexican film company Calderón films, funded by Guillermo Calderón, was known for creating key genre fare in its home country such as the Aztec Mummy series and several wrestling films. Guillermo was approached by his wife, Guillermina Green, who suggested that he should make a wrestling movie with female stars. The idea was genius as it would satisfy all kinds of audiences. This kickstarted the wrestling women series that began with Doctor of Doom in 1963 and ended with The Wrestling Women vs the Killer Robot in 1969 (all of them also directed by René Cardona). Batwoman being among their very last few efforts in the microgenre.

The main role went to actress and model Maura Monti, who appeared in several other genre movies but she was mostly notable for her action roles in S.O.S Operation Bikini (1967), Planet of the Female Invaders (1966), Dangerous Dolls (1969) and With License to Kill (1969).

At first, Batwoman seems like a straight rip off of the 1960's Batman TV series but it has very little to do with it aside from some campy elements and the lighthearted tone, although, it was certainly done to cash in on the success of Batgirl in the Batman show. The same thing can be said for the MST3K icon The Wild World of Batwoman but that one goes for full on comedy. Instead, the Mexican Batwoman mostly follows in the tradition of the typical wrestling superhero movie of its time and place.

The plot involves a mad scientist named Dr. Eric Williams attempting to create a new race of supermen by extracting wrestler's spinal fluid and mixing it up with fish DNA. He sends his minions out to kidnap athletes because he needs his subjects to be in great physical shape but all of them end up dying. As the body count rises, the intrepid and skilled Batwoman is put on the case, helping police detectives to catch the bad guy. However, when the mad doctor realizes his plans could be foiled by the heroine, he attempts to kidnap Batwoman to test the experiment on her, as he claims the procedure might be more effective on females.

A wild ride from beginning to end, this kooky and delightfully entertaining flick is one that every cult movie fan should see at least once. It has all the cheesy fun of the more well-known luchador movies of its kind, but it's greatly elevated by Cardona's carefree and agile direction, with a fast pace and consistent surprises at every turn. Every part of the movie is meant to evoke that B-movie cheese fans love.

We have the powerful heroine, who seems to be good at just about everything, kicking butt at every opportunity she has. The Batwoman is introduced showing off her great gunslinging, scuba diving and lucha libre skills, her great sense of fashion positions her characterization as traditionally feminine but still more than capable at fighting crime. 

We could complain about her going around in a bikini for most of the picture, but there's one thing that fascinates me about it, and that is having a hyper feminine action lead in a wrestling superhero movie. You see, usually these movies present males battling enemies and asserting their masculinity by doing so. This movie asserts the main character's femininity and exalts the female body by putting her in the same position of empowerment, displaying her body to assert her feminine prowess. That's a very clever reconfiguration of the formula and can really only be done by showing her feminine attributes (in the same way male wrestlers show off their bodies too), so her bikini isnt as sexist as it might seem. 

I think the best moment that reaffirms this is when we have a dull scene with some male wrestlers talking casually, only for them to be interrupted by female screams, we then cut to the source: two female wrestlers (Batwoman being one of them) in a harsh training session. Tough femininity steals the show here.

We also see a schlocky but charming rubber suit monster that spices things up and serves as a more direct node to the comic book tone the film is going for. In fact, the overacting, the silly names (the mad doctor having a boat called Reptilicus is a highlight) and the dumb comedy are aspects that cement this campy feeling, one that it manages to achieve. Speaking of bad comedy, the last joke is quite sexist but this is a 1968 movie we are talking about, it's not a fully enlightened era regarding feminism in popular cinema (much less in Mexico), so we just have to appreciate what they got right.

There were no sequels but the film had a strong life among cult movie circles and it eventually became a favorite among fans of this sort of cinema, often being referenced and featured in websites, physical media releases and retrospectives. The Batwoman lives even after all these years.